All Forum Posts by: Kyle Dhillon

Great, thank you all for your advice. 

 We've started talking to GCs and getting quotes for all the mentioned costs. We're also reaching out to developers who have built similar buildings. 

Regarding utilities, we got one estimate from an engineering firm for bringing water and sewer on-site for the specific lot we're looking at (they subcontracted out to a utility specialist firm). Both are under the street directly in front of the property, but the estimates were crazy -- $80,000+ for each water and sewer, despite the water main being on the same side of the street as the property. 

I hope this estimate is way off -- we're going to collect some other quotes ASAP and see if we can't get that number way down. Will keep you posted!

Thanks Henry and Cason. I wouldn't have considered utility hookup to be a significant issue -- we're looking at a totally empty lot so that will be a factor. 

Steel is probably best for our goals -- simple and cheaper. From looking at listings on steel building websites, the steel building shell itself doesn't appear to cost more than $10-15/SF and often less.

I'm wondering what makes up the bulk of the rest of the price -- let me explain:

Suppose a 10k building on a 2+ acre empty lot for simplicity (ignoring land). Are these at all reasonable conservative estimates?

$150k for steel shell

$25k for concrete slab and driveway?

$25k for utility hookup? 

$25k for interior electrical and plumbing

$25k for sewer, storm drains, fire hydrants

$25k for other interior costs

$50k for regulatory costs (permits, legal, etc)

$50k for other unexpected costs

This would come out to around $375k total, round up to $40/SF. Am I totally off with any of these estimate s?

Hi all!

I'm looking into purchasing industrial-zoned land around San Antonio, TX and attempting to spec out the cost of building a flex, multitenant warehouse from the ground up. This would be around ~10k SF, steel or tilt wall, divided into ~8 1200 sf simple units with a small bathroom in each. 

I've been reading as much as possible in an attempt to "estimate" the cost / SF -- but of course, there are many variables. And never having done a development project, I'm hoping to learn from someone who has already done it. If you or someone you know has built a similar sized warehouse from the ground up, I would love to hear your thoughts. I've seen price estimates for this kind of project ranging from $30/SF to $100/SF, and obviously one is much more doable than the other! Any other unexpected costs?

Thank you!

Kyle